Word just came down that the NRA has named liar, hypocrite, convicted felon (convictions later reversed), and traitor Oliver North as its new president.

(For those with short memories, North conspired with Ronald Reagan to sell arms to the Iranian Islamist government — a “hostile foreign power” — lied about it, and used the funds to bankroll the terrorist Nicaraguan Contras, an act specifically outlawed by Congress. This is about as close to a dictionary definition of treason as you’ll find,)

That the NRA named North as its new leader is entirely fitting.

You see some jerk driving around with a huge American flag flying (probably on a pickup — often two flags), with an NRA sticker on his tailgate, you can bet money that you’re seeing a traitor to (supposed) American values. (Being a pickup driver myself, I have nothing against pickups — just a lot of their drivers.)

These idiots think they’re patriots. They’re not. They make a fetish of worshiping the symbol of supposed American values (individual liberty, freedom of speech), while betraying those values by demanding strict conformity, oftentimes threatening dissenters, and occasionally assaulting those exercising the rights enshrined in the Constitution — rights that the flag is supposed to symbolize.

So, it’s completely appropriate that the NRA has named Oliver North as its president. An organization of traitors to American values has elevated an actual traitor.

An important note: I support gun rights and think every American adult should own at least one semi-automatic assault weapon. But the NRA has strayed so far from that reasonable position — it now takes authoritarian, often theocratic positions on a wide range of social, political, and economic issues — that it’s become a totalitarian, anti-American organization.

All that’s left is for the NRA to institute goose-stepping drills and oaths of fealty to the Glorious Orange Leader.

When I was much younger, I supported the NRA. No more.

I’m utterly disgusted.

What was supposed to be a Second Amendment, responsible gun use organization has transformed into a group of anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, pro-intrusive government theofascists.

Anyone who reads this blog should be well aware that I have no great love for Islam — nor for any other religion — and I consider Islam a graver threat to human freedom than the other major religions combined.

Islam itself is bad enough, but the current administration is poking an Islamic hornets’ nest with a stick.

Its approach to Islamic peoples in the Middle East is extremely dangerous, as Donald Trump seems to be doing everything he can, via foreign policy, to encourage violence by radical Islamists, and seems to be doing everything he can to drive the young, impressionable, and desperate into the arms of violent extremists.

Trump is siding with the worst, most repressive regimes in the Middle East, most importantly Islamic extremist Saudi Arabia, but also the brutal military regime in Egypt, and the extreme right in Israel, which is turning Israel/Palestine into an apartheid state.

None of this plays well with the oppressed in those lands, nor with those in other countries who care about the oppression of their brothers and sisters.

Trump’s (and Obama’s, and Bush the Lesser’s, and Clinton’s, and their predecessors’) interventionist policies in the Middle East have created a situation that’s a festering sore, and that will remain one until the U.S. stops supporting oppression.

Just getting the hell out of the Middle East entirely would be a huge improvement on past and current U.S. policy. Even better, the U.S. could begin supporting democratic, secular elements in the region — shockingly enough, this is now happening in one very limited instance, with the Kurds fighting ISIS — and spending money on development aid.

But this is pure fantasy. I’d be more than happy with simple U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East and the end of U.S. military and financial support for repressive regimes there. That alone would do more than all the bombs ever dropped to end Islamic radicalism.

Again, this drives impressionable, angry Muslim teenagers and young adults into the arms of ISIS and other Islamic death cults.

It also isolates the Muslim community, producing an us-versus-them mentality. This is what Trump, his goose-stepping alt-right supporters, ISIS, and Al Qaeda want, but it is not what the rest of us should want.

If you want to fight Islamic extremism, don’t harass Muslims. It might make you feel better to harass them, but it’s cowardly and it’ll ultimately backfire. Leave them alone. If you want to drive them into the arms of the fundamentalists and the terrorists, you won’t find a better way to do it than to harass them on the street.

Think about it. How would you react to being harassed (or worse, physically attacked) simply because of your appearance? Your perceived religious beliefs? Would you be more sympathetic to your attackers or to those who present themselves as fighting your attackers?

How would you feel if someone attacked your family because of their appearance or perceived beliefs?

Harassment and physical attacks increase the isolation and fear level of Muslims in the U.S. — precisely the conditions under which extremism flourishes.

If we believe in religious freedom, let’s act like it. Treat people with respect no matter who they are or what their perceived beliefs.

And let’s exercise our freedom of speech. Islam (and Christianity and religious Judaism and Hinduism for that matter) cannot stand up to scrutiny and ridicule.

Give that to them in spades, subject those religions — but not their individual adherents — to scrutiny and ridicule at every opportunity. The best antidote to Islamic and Christian authoritarianism is freedom of speech and freedom of belief.

Our ideas are better than theirs. Let’s start acting like we believe it. Let them express their noxious beliefs: they won’t stand up to scrutiny.

Let’s start acting like we have respect for human rights and individual human beings.